How geography matters: neglected dimensions in contemporary migration research

In Asia, migration is a complex phenomenon, the same as worldwide. The approaches of diaspora as well as transnational migration and transnational social spaces describe contemporary migration processes and are at the centre of this paper. Our major critique about these approaches is their dominantly socio-cultural perspective on migration, the missing link to other existing social theory, and missing consideration of the importance of place and identity, and the multiple ways how people perceive and construct space. To address this critique we present innovative geographical research showing the potential of social geography to contribute to the understanding of increasing mobility worldwide

General practitioners can evaluate the material, social and health dimensions of patient social status

OBJECTIVE: To identify which physician and patient characteristics are associated with physicians' estimation of their patient social status.DESIGN: Cross-sectional ulticentric survey. SETTING: Fourty-seven primary care private offices in Western Switzerland. PARTICIPANTS: Random sample of 2030 patients ≥ 16, who encountered a general practitioner (GP) between September 2010 and February 2011. MAIN MEASURES: PRIMARY OUTCOME: patient social status perceived by GPs, using the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status, ranging from the bottom (0) to the top (10) of the social scale.Secondary outcome: Difference between GP's evaluation and patient's own evaluation of their social status. Potential patient correlates: material and social deprivation using the DiPCare-Q, health status using the EQ-5D, sources of income, and level of education. GP characteristics: opinion regarding patients' deprivation and its influence on health and care. RESULTS: To evaluate patient social status, GPs considered the material, social, and health aspects of deprivation, along with education level, and amount and type of income. GPs declaring a frequent reflexive consideration of their own prejudice towards deprived patients, gave a higher estimation of patients' social status (+1.0, p = 0.002). Choosing a less costly treatment for deprived patients was associated with a lower estimation (-0.7, p = 0.002). GP's evaluation of patient social status was 0.5 point higher than the patient's own estimate (p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: GPs can perceive the various dimensions of patient social status, although heterogeneously, according partly to their own characteristics. Compared to patients' own evaluation, GPs overestimate patient social status

Granite-hosted gold mineralization in the Midlands greenstone belt: a new type of low-grade gold deposit in Zimbabwe

In 1992, the Ford gold deposit was rediscovered during field work in the Kwekwe district near the Indarama mine, approximately 200 km southwest of Harare, Zimbabwe. Based on diamond drilling and open pit operations, estimated ore reserves are at least 3 Mt with an average gold content of 2.5 g/t. The gold deposit is located within a porphyritic granite dike with a thickness of 20–50 m, striking 800 m NNW-SSE. It dips 60–70° to the NE and intrudes a volcano-sedimentary sequence of tholeiitic basalts, acid volcanics, and banded iron formations of the Bulawayan Group (2900–2700 Ma). The intrusion of the dike occurred at 2541 ± 17 Ma (Pb/Pb step leaching technique) within a second order structure and is related to displacement along transcrustal deformation zones such as the Sherwood- and Taba-Mali deformation zones. Gold mineralization is confined to the s-shaped part of the dike intrusion. At the present stage of mining, the deposit is characterized by the absence of major veins, the occurrence of disseminated pyrite throughout the orebody, and a distinct alteration pattern comparable to that of porphyry copper deposits. The central zone of the dike shows a typical K-feldspar-albite-sericite-pyrite (±biotite?) alteration, followed by a narrow external propylitic zone. Native gold with an average Ag content of 5 wt.% and a grain size of 5–100 μm is rare and occurs within pyrite and secondary K-feldspar. Sulphide mineral separates of pyrite and minor arsenopyrite probably contain invisible gold (up to 120 ppm) amenable to cyanidation. Anomalously high gold values of ∼7 ppm have been found in the transition between the K-feldspar-albite-sericite-pyrite alteration and the propylitic zone, indicating that the mineralizing fluids have experienced major physico-chemical changes in the transition zone. The regional tectonic position of the orebody suggests that the emplacement of the granite and the gold mineralization are structurally controlled. The Pb isotope composition of several leachates of pyrite indicate isotope disequilibrium with magmatic minerals and point to a contamination of the mineralizing fluid by Pb from older (sedimentary?) sources. Stable isotope geochemistry of sulphides and carbonates as well as the metallogeny of the deposit compare to shear-zone hosted gold mineralization in the Kwekwe district, for which a deep crustal origin has been discussed. Although this study documents contrasting evidence for a porphyry-gold versus a shear-zone type of mineralization, it is suggested that gold-bearing fluids were syntectonically introduced into a ductile shear zone within the granite dike either during cooling of the intrusion or later in Archaean or early Proterozoic times

The classification of irreducible admissible mod p representations of a p-adic GL_n

Let F be a finite extension of Q_p. Using the mod p Satake transform, we define what it means for an irreducible admissible smooth representation of an F-split p-adic reductive group over \bar F_p to be supersingular. We then give the classification of irreducible admissible smooth GL_n(F)-representations over \bar F_p in terms of supersingular representations. As a consequence we deduce that supersingular is the same as supercuspidal. These results generalise the work of Barthel-Livne for n = 2. For general split reductive groups we obtain similar results under stronger hypotheses.Comment: 55 pages, to appear in Inventiones Mathematica

Instruments for investigating fitness to drive - needs and expectations in primary care: a qualitative study

Background: Primary care physicians are often requested to assess their patients' fitness to drive. Little is however known on their needs to help them in this task. Aims: The aim of this study is to develop theories on needs, expectations, and barriers for clinical instruments helping physicians assess fitness to drive in primary care. Methods: This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to investigate needs and expectations for instruments used to assess fitness to drive. From August 2011 to April 2013, we recorded opinions from five experts in traffic medicine, five primary care physicians, and five senior drivers. All interviews were integrally transcribed. Two independent researchers extracted, coded, and stratified categories relying on multi-grounded theory. All participants validated the final scheme. Results: Our theory suggests that for an instruments assessing fitness to drive to be implemented in primary care, it need to contribute to the decisional process. This requires at least five conditions: 1) it needs to reduce the range of uncertainty, 2) it needs to be adapted to local resources and possibilities, 3) it needs to be accepted by patients, 4) choices of tasks need to adaptable to clinical conditions, 5) and interpretation of results need to remain dependant of each patient's context. Discussion and conclusions: Most existing instruments assessing fitness to drive are not designed for primary care settings. Future instruments should also aim to support patient-centred dialogue, help anticipate driving cessation, and offer patients the opportunity to freely take their own decision on driving cessation as often as possible

Comprehensive Assessment of GPR68 Expression in Normal and Neoplastic Human Tissues Using a Novel Rabbit Monoclonal Antibody

GPR68 (OGR1) belongs to the proton-sensing G protein-coupled receptors that are involved in cellular adaptations to pH changes during tumour development. Although expression of GPR68 has been described in many tumour cell lines, little is known about its presence in human tumour entities. We characterised the novel rabbit monoclonal anti-human GPR68 antibody 16H23L16 using various cell lines and tissue specimens. The antibody was then applied to a large series of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded normal and neoplastic human tissue samples. Antibody specificity was demonstrated in a Western blot analysis of GPR68-expressing cells using specific siRNAs. Immunocytochemical experiments revealed pH-dependent changes in subcellular localisation of the receptor and internalisation after stimulation with lorazepam. In normal tissue, GPR68 was present in glucagon-producing islet cells, neuroendocrine cells of the intestinal tract, gastric glands, granulocytes, macrophages, muscle layers of arteries and arterioles, and capillaries. GPR68 was also expressed in neuroendocrine tumours, where it may be a positive prognostic factor, in pheochromocytomas, cervical adenocarcinomas, and endometrial cancer, as well as in paragangliomas, medullary thyroid carcinomas, gastrointestinal stromal tumours, and pancreatic adenocarcinomas. Often, tumour capillaries were also strongly GPR68-positive. The novel antibody 16H23L16 will be a valuable tool for basic research and for identifying GPR68-expressing tumours during histopathological examinations

Sequential Serum-dependent Activation of CREB and NRF-1 Leads to Enhanced Mitochondrial Respiration through the Induction of Cytochrome c

Progression through the cell cycle requires ATP for protein synthesis, cytoskeletal rearrangement, chromatin remodeling, and protein degradation. The mechanisms by which mammalian cells increase respiratory capacity and ATP production in preparation for cell division are largely unexplored. Here, we demonstrate that serum induction of cytochrome c mRNA and processed protein in quiescent BALB/3T3 fibroblasts is associated with a marked increase in mitochondrial respiration. Cytochrome c was induced in the absence of any increase in citrate synthase activity or in subunit IV of the cytochrome c oxidase complex mRNA or protein, indicating that the enhanced respiratory rate did not require a general increase in mitochondrial biogenesis or respiratory chain expression. Transfections with a series of cytochrome c promoter mutants showed that both nuclear respiratory factor 1 (NRF-1) and cAMP-response element-binding protein (CREB) binding sites contributed equally to induced expression by serum. Moreover, CREB and NRF-1 were phosphorylated sequentially in response to serum, and the NRF-1 phosphorylation was accompanied by an increase in its ability to trans-activate target gene expression. The results demonstrate that the differential transcriptional expression of cytochrome c, through sequential transcription factor phosphorylations, leads to enhanced mitochondrial respiratory capacity upon serum-induced entry to the cell cycle

A Variable Stiffness Robotic Probe for Soft Tissue Palpation

During abdominal palpation diagnosis, a medical practitioner would change the stiffness of their fingers in order to improve the detection of hard nodules or abnormalities in soft tissue to maximize the haptic information gain via tendons. Our recent experiments using a controllable stiffness robotic probe representing a human finger also confirmed that such stiffness control in the finger can enhance the accuracy of detecting hard nodules in soft tissue. However, the limited range of stiffness achieved by the antagonistic springs variable stiffness joint subject to size constraints made it unsuitable for a wide range of physical examination scenarios spanning from breast to abdominal examination. In this letter, we present a new robotic probe based on a variable lever mechanism able to achieve stiffness ranging from 0.64 to 1.06 N ⋅m/rad that extends the maximum stiffness by around 16 times and the stiffness range by 33 times. This letter presents the mechanical model of the novel probe, the finite element simulation as well as experimental characterization of the stiffness response for lever actuation